Sherrice Iverson
October 20, 1989 - May 25, 1997
| A site came to my attention and I decided
that it is very important for the children on that site to be remembered
on as many sites as is possible. The site background is this:
Black Kids Heaven is a site made in memory of black
children who have been victims of violent crimes. The site was put together
in the name of Sherrice Iverson who was only seven years old at the time
of her rape and
murder. Sherrice's life came to an end when she
met a man named Jeremy Strohmeyer in a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, while
her father gambled and her brother, who was supposed to be |
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watching after her who lost track of her. That was
on May 25, 1997, the last day in life of Sherrice Iverson.
Sherrice met up with a child her age and they began
playing together. The two children were throwing wet paper towels at each
other when one of the paper towels hit Jeremy Strohmeyer. An innocent,
fun game would turn out to be a deadly mistake for Sherrice.
Sherrice thought that it would be a good idea to
hide, in play, from Jeremy. Sherrice chose to hide in the women's bathroom.
Jeremy and his friend, a man named David Cash, followed her into the women's
bathroom. David Cash looked over the bathroom stall and saw Jeremy sexually
assaulting the seven year old girl and asked him to stop. Jeremy ignored
the request and continued to tell Sherrice if she didn't "shut up", he
was going to kill her.
David left the bathroom, never bothering to alert
anyone to what was going on inside and waited for Jeremy. When Jeremy came
out, David asked him a few disgusting questions about the rape. Later in
the day, Jeremy told David that he had killed the little girl. Jeremy had
tried to strangle the girl and when that didn't work he twisted her neck
until he heard it snap. The men returned to Long Beach, California.
Jeremy was arrested after going to school and bragging
about what he had done to Sherrice. By pleading guilty, he was able to
avoid being sentenced to death. Jeremy was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. David Cash was not prosecuted for what
happened even though he didn't do the right thing and report was had happened.
A new bill was introduced by Nevada State Assembly
Majority Leader Richard Perkins called the Sherrice Iverson's Bill. The
bill would have made it a requirement for ANY adult who witnessed
the sexual assault of a child who is under the age of 14 to report it or
spend six months in jail. That hardly seems like a long enough time, in
my own opinion. The bill was never enacted.
In 2000, 2001 and 2003, Jeremy Strohmeyer applied
for release from prison while appealing his convictions. His appeals were
denied. Due to the unwillingness of David Cash to stop what he saw or report
it, cameras have been installed in Nevada hotels and casinos and some casinos
now have security guards working in the arcades. If anything good was to
come of the death of this little Angel, that would be it.
The safety of Jeremy Strohmeyer is at risk due to
the nature of his crime. In prison, crimes against children put people
in great danger. Jeremy won't have to worry about that though, he's been
in protective custody at the Lovelock Correctional Facility in Nevada.
Jeremy spends 24 hours a day in his cell, alone. His life is closely guarded,
even though he took the life of an innocent child.
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The life of David Cash goes on. His
failure to protect this little girl from his monster of a friend reflects
on him and speaks volumes about what kind of person he is. I do hope that
he is remembered for the rest of his life as the man who approves of raping
and killing little children. After hearing some very cold and heartless
comments made by David Cash in regards to what had happened and how he
had ignored it, Tim Conway Jr. and Doug Steckler organized a rally at the
college where David was studying nuclear engineering. |
"How much am I supposed to-to sit down and
cry about this? I mean, let's be reasonable here. Is my life supposed to
halt for-like, for days, weeks and months on end? The simple fact remains,
I do not know this little girl. I do not know starving children in Panama."
David Cash
David was asked if the murder was bothering his
conscience"
"No, not to the extent that most people
would want
it to be."
In response to those comments Yolanda fired back:
"You don't have to know a child or a human
being to save their life. Get yourself together, David Cash, because you
know you're wrong. You don't have no remorse for me or my family. I have
people from all over the world calling and crying with me over the telephone,
David, and you haven't called, your parents haven't even called."
Yolanda Manuel and over 100 other people went the
University of California at Berkeley and tried to get David expelled. Saying
that David had helped contribute to the death of her daughter by just walking
away and acting as if nothing had happened and not reporting what he had
seen. Yolanda felt that he was an accessory to what happened. I agree with
her! Because Nevada doesn't have a "good samaritan" law, David had done
nothing wrong as far as the law was concerned.
"I don't have my child with me no more. At
this point I'm going after David Cash because he was in the bathroom at
the time
and he didn't do nothing about it. I'm very
outraged about this. He is an accomplice to the murder."
David's parents never said a word about what happened.
Mark Werksman, David's lawyer had nothing to say about the protest and
said that David also had nothing to say stating:
"He's said enough"
Other comments that were made by David Cash have
made people angry, including Yolanda and the public in general. David bragged
that since the crime was so well known, he was able to meet women more
easily and he was quoted as having said he planned to profit from this.
David denies he made either comment. It sounds like things he would say
though!
A crowd of people gathered on the steps of Spraul
Plaza with signs telling David to go home. Students talked about how they
were uncomfortable in having to share a dorm and even a campus with David.
The students also told of their disappointment in Chancellor Robert Berdahl
for not making David leave the school. Robert Berdahl said that because
David had not committed a crime, he could not dismiss him.
"Berkeley has a choice about who they accept
as students and they try to screen them really well. In this case, they
made a mistake, and now he needs to get out of here. He needs to be held
responsible, otherwise he'll never be an adult. Somebody's got to take
the first step and it should be Berkeley."
Tina Rouvatis - A student
Yolanda had a message for David that day:
"I'm not going to give up on you, David. I'm
still crying, but I
told David that I'm not going to cry no more,
because
he's going to be the next to cry."
After that, many people who had come to support
her offered words of support and even hugs to her. Some people thought
that because her daughter is black and the her attacker and his supporter
are white, that Yolanda is trying to make this a race issue. Yolanda says
that is not true. I believe her.
"I feel really awful for Manuel. I'm appalled
and I don't think
this student should be at Cal. If we can
expel people for plagiarism, we should be able to expel someone, who as
far as I'm concerned, was an accomplice to
a murder."
Donna Weir - A student and instructor
Yolanda filed a civil lawsuit and a settlement was
reached.
Sherrice was laid to rest on on May 31, 1997. May
she rest in peace, with Angels taking care of her.
.
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Sadly LeRoy Iverson died at the age of 60 in July
of 2000 due to complications with Diabetes and Cancer. Sherrice is now
with her father.
LeRoy's death came just four months before his civil
lawsuit against the hotel where Sherrice was killed was set to go to court.
David Phillips, LeRoy's lawyer said:
"He loses his
life, he loses his daughter, and then
his son is left alone"
LeRoy also had a son named Harold Lee Jordan Iverson.
David Phillips said he would still go to court over the civil case. LeRoy's
doctor said that he had been badly affected by
the murder of his
daughter, that he had been really down about it.
A service was held
for LeRoy at Paradise Baptist Church in Los Angeles.
Read
About Changes
You can visit the site that inspired me to tell
this story, by clicking below:
For information about preventing child abuse in the
state of Nevada, click the links below. If they can't help you, ask for
someone who can. NEVER give up looking for help for an abused child!
Call this number to report
child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child 1-800-422-4453
  
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